Business leaders hear local NCDOT update
May 2—As Sanford and North Carolina continue to grow, the N.C. Department of Transportation is not only planning projects across the state, but also working on ways to fund those projects.
At Monday's Sanford Area Growth Alliance Public Policy Luncheon, attendees had the chance to hear from several NCDOT representatives about what the future holds for Lee County and Sanford.
Board of Transportation Division 8 member Lisa Mathis and Division 8 Engineer Patrick Norman discussed the projects and funding for about an hour at the Dennis Wicker Civic Center.
"We maintain the second largest roadway network in the nation," Mathis said. "We've got more than 80,000 road miles; we also maintain over 13,500 bridges and we divide construction and maintenance across 14 divisions."
Division 8, of which Lee County is a part of, includes eight counties.
"We have just under 7, 000 road miles and almost 15,00 lane miles," Mathis said. "We currently have two passenger rail stations and seven airports, including what is the what is the jewel in the crown of the aviation division, the Raleigh Executive Jetport."
Mathis spoke about the NCDOT finances, noting that the entity had a cash balance of more than $2 billion.
"Forecasts continue to show us in good shape for many years to come," she said. "Another key metric is the dollar amount of open commitments — contracts awarded and underway. At almost $8.5 billion, the need for a strong cash balance becomes much more apparent. Our cash on hand is only about 28% of our open commitment total. We average about $630 million in monthly expenditures."
In February, NCDOT awarded 20 new projects totaling almost $290 million. The agency accepted and closed commitments on 46 projects totaling more than $175 million. Mathis said NCDOT receives funding on the state and federal level. She noted there are three primary sources — the motor fuel tax, which provides about 50% of the revenue — highway use tax, which provides about 25% and the DMV, which accounts for 21% of the funding.
Mathis said the state Legislature recently approved moving sales tax money already collected from vehicle-related items, such as oil changes and tires to NCDOT funding — a roughly 6% transfer from the General Fund to the agency.
Mathis also spoke of the shift from the fuel taxes to other revenue streams as electric vehicles become more prevalent. She also said that more than 50% of growth in the next 10 years will be divided between four states: North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Georgia.
More than 3.5 million people are projected to move to North Carolina during that time period," she said.
Norman also discussed the budget process and talked about several upcoming projects in the area. Among the projects are SR-1521 — a three-lane realignment for Kelly Drive, which will be let in July 2024; U-5709, which will widen Carthage Street to a multi-lane street, scheduled to be let in June 2025; several projects for U.S. 1/15/501 in Tramway, which will convert it into a "superstreet," and realign N.C. 87. Another major project is set for U.S. 421 Business and N.C. 87 from U.S. 1/501 to north of Bragg Street. However, that project won't be let until 2031.
Other future projects include runway and taxiway work at the Raleigh Executive Jetport, a multi-use path to be built from Legion Drive north of High Ridge Drive at Kiwanis Park and sidewalks and bike lanes on Charlotte Avenue from Chatham Street to 11th Street in Sanford.
"There's a lot of interest in Lee County with a lot of potential industrial sites — we're excited to see what comes," he said.
Norman shared growth projections numbers, saying that Lee County's current population of around 57,000 people is projected to grow to more than 87,000 people by 2050.
"These projections were done before a lot of these industrial announcements were made," he said. "The numbers will probably be higher. "
